Podcast news

Hi,

I need some more time on my Venetian vendor for the month, so I’m swapping its episode with the monster you’d usually be getting the first week of September. It’s kind of still to theme, because it’s a version of the utility monster I created eight years ago, but with its abilities shorn down and put inside the shape of an artist’s model as a kind of weak False God. It’s based on “Rose Rose” by Barry Pain.

You’ll notice you’re getting a lot more statted monsters recently on the podcast: I’m not sure why that is but I think it’s a good thing, so I’m going to try and keep it going.

As a reminder, Mythic Europe Magazine issue two is seeking submissions. I’ve two solid ones so far and the promise of another, which leaves me roughly seven slots depending on length. I’d particularly like to say to people who ran games at Grand Tribunal that if you aren’t going to publish them yourself, I’m happy to work them up with you as magazine articles.

4 Likes

Bit of an odd question:

If I did an audiobook read of Heirs to Merlin, would people care about it? It’s a pretty heavy commitment. Assuming 10 minutes per page, it’s about 30 hours of work. Since it is statless it’s a doable thing. It does come out of the same bucket of time as other projects, though, so…I’m asking “This or Sanctuary of Ice? or Sicily Attempt 3? or Domdaniel or Republic of Pirates or…”

1 Like

My top vote would be for 5e sanctuary of ice.

1 Like

I’ve never considered an audiobook read of an Ars book. Would it help some people get into the setting more, or digest it better? It’s worth a try, so people know how big an audience there is for that sort of thing.

A reading of an Ars book would be wasted on me. I use those books for reference. So my vote would be for one of your other projects instead.

I’d follow an audiobook read. Especially if you include side notes related to your experiences as an Ars author! 4e book writing process compared to 5e, collaboration on books, anything like that would be awesome.

I’m not really a customer for RPG audiobooks, generally speaking. I much prefer text.

BTW: still looking for articles for MEM2.

2 Likes

Out of curiosity - why did you decide stat blocks wouldn't be counted? I’m asking, as someone who thinks Ars Magicka doesn't have enough published stats block.

Kinda hard to read them out loud in a digestible way.

I’m talking about the Mythic Europe Magazine, which is a written publication.

Ars Magica has over 720 stat blocks I’m aware of.

Two reasons. Jason’s right: one idea of MEM originally was to let me use articles for the podcast. I used Tom Nowell’s from MEM1, for example.

The second is it sucks up wordcount tremendously. A really simple monster, like the demonic chimerae in today’s podcast episode, for example, are 350 words. This is why the demons in RoP:I have their common powers split off, by the way. Otherwise the book would have pages and pages of repetitions of the common powers.

2 Likes

Relatedly, my “Write every day in November” thing this year will be Ars Magica Monsters Volume 2.

Do people think including the Martians from MEM1 is a bit of cheek, or fair play?

4 Likes

30 days 30 monsters is happening over at

Most of them are creatures I’ve said “Stats eventually” on. A couple so far are brand new: a huge, demonic chimera based on an etching by Desprez, and a tribe of tiny, almost non-magical “wyverns” which are clearly archaeopteryxes and use an exploit in the quality/inferiority rules to stock up on virtues..**
**
I’m cheating slightly because I’ve written one ahead by accident: Boneless, a cryptid for Cheshire, was going to be “monster of the month” this week and it’s not strong enough for an episode, but I have a set of stats.

2 Likes

Ars Magica Monsters Volume 2 is up for sale on itch.io, Patreon and (eventually) Drivethru, which has human vetting for its submissions. It’s the next 50 monsters, and I’ve priced it at $8, or free to paid subscribers on Patreon.

I’m planning Mythic Europe Magazine Volume 2 for March and, somewhat more tentatively, Ars Magic Monsters Volume 3 for July. My backlog of monsters is currently 48 + whatever I can get from ”True Story” by Lucian.

The final table of contents of AMM2 looks like this:

Aphlar

The Architectural Snowstorm

Awful Bugaboo

Bavarian Wyverns

The Blindworm of Gibbet Hill

The revener who carries a serpent in its heart

Boggarts

The Boggarts of Clegg Hall

Jeremy Lowther

Boneless

The Bride of Corinth

Brunhilda of Wake Not the Dead

Byland Revener

Chimeras

Classical

Baudelaire's Chimeras

Desprez’s Chimera

Conjured Nyctalops

The Dark Angel

Demoniacal Justinian

Dragon of Cos

The Dragon From The Book of Beasts

The Erl-King

The Erl-King’s Daughter

The Enchantress Who Tempts Pilgrims

Ethelind Fionguala

Faerie Geese

The Goose that Biteth the Royal Posterior

Geese Almost Spherical

Fair Ellen of Radcliffe Hall

Fayliss the Troubadour

The Ghoul Who Sponsors Serial Killers

Gloramone

The Headless Bear

A Horological Demon

The Ice Huntress

her direwolves

revenant mammoth

Infernal Wrens

The Manticora from The Book of Beasts

The Maskmakers

Euryale

Gabriella

The Martians

without equipment

with handling machine

with fighting-machine

The Moston Dragon

Petrus Pontium: the Master of the Bridge of Fists

Prufrock’s Cat

Rose Rose

Simon the Ombra Seller

Trogloditic Cave Bear

A Willow Dryad for the Forlorn

Dereliquerata

Desola, a weaver of circlets

Appendix 1: Demonic Powers

Appendix 2: Art Credits

6 Likes

Reading it now, love this one!

1 Like

I -loved- this book as a kid. I just wore out the library hardback of this. I was getting ready to read it for Librivox the year it went public domain and another fan beat me to it. It’s just a lovely book.

What I should have done is the dragon so small a girl gets it in her eye, like an insect, and when she reports that dragons exist people keep telling her she’s wrong until a larger one drags off the editor of the newspaper, so there’s no-one to tell the journalists what is sensible anymore. It’s a great book.